Down The Hole
by hervissa
Summary: A prequel to Animal In The Arena :D Logan and Ororo are on a scouting mission to investigate a strange military base...but nothing is as it seems ;)


**Soooo...because ****_Jeanniebird_**** talked me into writing more about how Wolvie ended up in the Arena and all, HERE IT IS! ^_^**

**It's a prequel to Animal In The Arena, but you can read it alone, if you want... :)**

**As always, read, review & enjoy! :D**

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**Down The Hole**

A man, dressed in a black-and-grey uniform, ran through the dark forest. Occasionaly, he slowed down and sniffed the air, just to nod and quick up again. Finally, he reached a small meadow, where he stopped, took a long sniff and smiled. Then he whistled.  
All of sudden, a woman flew down from the sky. Her white hair reflected the moonlight as she landed on the ground. „Found somethin' interestin', Ro?" asked the man. „It looks like there's a military base for about two kilometres away. But Logan, it's weird. I don't know why, the wind coming from that direction is just...strange," said Ororo. Logan nodded: „Yeah. It doesn't smell like anything I've ever smelled before. And besides, there even _shouldn't_ be a base. I'd know that."  
„Should I call Scott?" asked Ororo, reaching for herearpiece. Logan snorted. „Scouty boy would be good just for one thing here. For shit. I'll just have to...sniff better. No need to make a fuss about it," he added when Ororo opened her mouth to say something. She smiled: „I won't. Don't worry, _Wolvie_," she smirked and took a few steps back. Logan growled and shot her a look. „Hey, Jubilee calls you Wolvie all the time, so why can't I?" grinned Ororo.  
Only a sigh came in the response.  
Pushing his friend out of his mind, Logan took a deep breath and closed his eyes.  
_Let the walls fall. _He felt the beast deep inside him pouring out.  
His posturebecame more on alert, more animalistic, more dangerous. When he opened his eyes again, the warm brown was gone. Instead there was darker, older shade inside them. And something deep down, something predator-like. Even that Ororo didn't fear the Wolverine, she still felt her primal instincts screaming on her to run away and _hide._  
She was always fascinated when Logan let his feral side out. She's never seen him completely wild, and she wasn't sure she'd like it, but just this tiny little bit was amazing.  
...nature taking over...  
Logan shook his head and blinked a few times. The more civilized part of his brain began to take control once again. He raised his head and sniffed the air. Then he growled and shot out into the forest. Ororo smiled and let the winds lift her up.  
Assuming that Logan will most probably go to the base, she flew in that direction, enjoying the breeze on her skin. After a while, Storm was almost above the complex, when all of sudden, she felt a strange energy in the air, same as she felt in the wind back when she found the base. It wasn't anything natural, that she knew for sure. Carefully, Ororo flew lower and landed near the silent building.  
It looked...weird. Somehow, it was like the base wasn't really there. Her eyes were telling her that she was standing right in front of it, but when Ororo closed them, she could swear that there was only the forest and nothing else. Her head was getting dizzy from it. Blinking a few times, Ororo turned around just in time to see Logan emerging from the forest. All of sudden, he froze, his whole body on alert. Turning his head, he observed the surroundings of the base and then his eyes locked in the middle of the building. Or more accurately, in the middle of the thing that looked like a building.  
"...Logan?" asked Ororo carefully. His head snapped to her and for a moment, he looked a bit confused. Then he shook his head and said: "It's swapping in and out of the reality. Or somethin' like that. Charlie could tell it with better words," he smirked. "I'll go in, but I'd like you to go up and take a look."  
Ororo nodded and lifted into the air once again. Hovering above the base, she kept her gaze on Wolverine, just in case he'd need her.  
Not that THAT was too probable.

Logan began walking forward, taking small steps and sniffing the air as he did so. In the moment he reached the building, he grimaced. It looked like he was walking through the wall, while it felt like he was walking through honey or glue or something as heavy and sticky.  
Even that the..._thing_ was resisting, he kept walking and finally, he saw light. Literally. Purple and red and white and blue and black and green. Flashes and sparks, bright and bland, small and huge. Instinctively, he took few steps back, but then he realized that something was blocking him. Logan quickly spun around and swore.  
Between him and the rest of the world was a wall of shining and glittering light.  
_Trap, it was all one big fucking trap!  
_And he walked right into it, like a bloody idiot.  
Determined to get out, Logan raised his head. And swore again. The wall wasn't just a wall. It was a part of a half-sphere, which covered the whole place where the "base" previously stood.  
_Pretty good even me,_ he thought bitterly.

He caught a glimpse of white in the sky and he realized that Ororo was descending to the half-sphere. Activating his earpiece, he shouted: "Stay there, Ro!"  
A response came immediately: "Dammit, Logan! What is it? Are you alright?"  
Despite the situation he was in, Logan grinned. If Ororo threw away her calm mask and polite demeanor, and just because of him...well, it looked like she grew a soft spot for him.  
"I'm not sure what this should be, but I'm okay. You stay up there and call Charlie," replied Logan. "Will do," answered Ororo. A small sigh of relief escaped Logan's lips when he saw as she flew up again.**  
**  
He needed a clear head - so he concentrated and pushed the beast inside him back down. Then he took a few steps toward the strange lights, floating and sparkling in the middle of the half-sphere. Logan realized they have changed. Instead of random flashes, there was a group of circles, vortexes, shining and whirling around. He reached for his earpiece again, but Ororo was already shouting: "Go away from it! Don't touch it! At least wait until the rest of the team will arrive! Logan!"  
Logan heard the worry and fear in her voice, even that she tried to hide it, but still, he continued walking. The light was kind of pulling him in, he realized.  
The vortexes moved when he came to them. They spread around him, and before he realized it, he was inside a circle of shining light, which was slowly moving closer to him. Trying to find a way out, Logan turned around, but there was no escape.  
Just the light.  
"Logan! ...what is...do..hear me...please..." cracked the earpiece. The light was interfering with the signal, realized the mutant. "Stay. There!" he shouted as clearly as he could, hoping she'll hear him.  
The vortexes were now so close he could touch them...even that he'd rather not.  
And then the light reached out to him.

Hovering above the half-sphere, Ororo rapidly talked to Jean on the other side of the comlink and at the same time she kept looking on Logan, who was surrounded by the circles of light.  
"...we're there in five minutes, Ororo," she heard Jean saying calmly. Ororo opened her mouth to reply something, but then light from the half-sphere brightened so much she couldn't look into it. Shielding her eyes from it, she tried to spot Logan. He _had_ to be there somewhere.  
But then the light faded, the half-sphere disappeared and the only thing left was a circle of white fire, burning around the place where the mutant previously stood.

Jean jumped at the scream coming from the speaker**.  
**"NO! No, no, no!"  
"Ororo, what has happened?" she asked, inwardly dreading the answer.  
No reply came. Just a swift of wind, meaning that Ororo was flying as fast as she could.  
Jean looked on Scott, sitting in the pilot chair, and then on Charles. The telepath's eyes were closed and he was frowning as he searched the area before them. Next to him, another old man in a helmet and a cape sat, playing with four metal circles, tied together. Jean was still a bit nervous that one of their worst enemies was flying with them, but if Professor thought it was alright, she wasn't going to argue.  
"We're almost there," called Hank from the co-pilot chair. Jean looked to the back of the Blackbird, on the tall man in dark red cloak. Doctor Stephen Strange. He was the one who told them about the weird energy in this location.  
He held an amulet in front of him, watching it like a cat watches a mouse. His eyes shone with inner light.  
Deciding to leave him be, Jean quickly looked out of the window. Clouds were gathering before the jet and soon even the moon disappeared behind them. With a worried look on her face, she turned to the microphone and called her best friend.

Ororo couldn't believe it. She simply couldn't. She've seen dimension portals, teleports and alien space-gates, but nothing like that. Hell, every portal or vortex had some controls, some starting point, _something!_  
She stood at the fire, looking at the sky. She realized it was full of dark clouds. Concentrating, Ororo raised a barrier between her mind and the weather around her, causing the sky to clear once more.  
"Ororo? Ro? Are you there? What happened?" called Jean through the comlink. Reaching for her earpiece, Ororo said slowly: "He's gone. Fell into a vortex."  
There was silence on the other end and then a short reply: "We're here."  
Black jet shot out from the darkness and slowed only to hover above the ground and land on the grass. The team, Charles, Erik and Dr. Strange came out.  
And Ororo talked.

Half of hour later, Dr. Strange sat in the middle of a pentagram and the air around him shone. Behind his back, a huge vortex was opening. Finally, the man opened his eyes and smiled: "Your way is prepared. I tried to follow the way of the last dimension shift, so it should take you to Logan."  
"...should...?" asked Scott with a lifted eyebrow. Stephen shrugged: "Ninety-five percents. That's the best I can do."  
Jean searched through her mind to find the burning place, the cosmic power, the Phoenix. It was still there. If anything, she could rely on that.  
Magneto nodded, spun around and walked back into the jet. Then he looked back out: "You coming?" he asked with a smirk.

**oOoOo**

Logan was falling.  
Falling through the darkness, with no control of his surroundings.  
Cursing, he tried to grab something, anything, but there was nothing. Just the whirling colours, flashing through the dark, and the light above him, quickly fading away.  
Down and down, still down, with nothing to hold onto, nothing to look forward to.  
Logan couldn't say how long was he falling, but the vortex began to change. Instead of the whirling blackness and sparks of light, it strangely began to resemble a tunnel to a rabbit hole - there were even some roots growing out from the sides.  
And stranger things began to appear. Out of nowhere, a piano flew down, causing Logan to throw himself to side so he wouldn't collide with it. The instrument disappeared in the darkness under him. Logan fell past tower of shelves, each full of jars. Acting on an impulse, he reached out and grabbed one. The label on it said _Marmelade_. He frowned, but returned it into another shelf he was just passing by.  
A phrase from some book he read many, many years ago popped inside his head.  
_Curiouser and curiouser._  
Logan began to think how to solve this mess. Most probable option was that the vortex was some kind of dimension gate, a portal to another place, world, reality.  
Logan had quite some experience with things like that. Now he only needed to find out where was he going to end up.  
His thoughts were interrupted by something that looked like a big salt shaker, made of metal. It hit Logan's head. The impact left a dent in the shape of his skull in the body of the thing. It screamed "EXTERMINATE!", but then it disappeared in a pulsing circle of blue light.  
Logan realized that the circles were appearing everywhere, and that sooner or later he'll fall through one. Physically and mentally preparing for an impact with the ground, Logan closed his eyes. He didn't wait long - almost immediately a circle opened right under him.

Logan felt the wind on his skin as he fell through open air.

And hit the ground.

Reflexively, Logan rolled and jumped on his feet. He was in a forest, but quite different from the one he was before. In the distance, he heard some kind of buzzing and a thousand of smells hit his nose. He searched his surroundings and he sniffed the air and the wind brought a smell of blood-  
The beast inside him, the wild animal caged deep-down, woke up. Logan, whose mind was still thrown off the balance thanks to the vortex, felt as his senses sharpened and the world seemed much simpler...  
His feral side took control. Completely.

Wolverine sniffed the air and froze. Somebody was coming. Somebody injured and scared and desperate. Smelling the scent of metal, a word popped up in the mutant's brain: _armed._  
Standing still like a statue, Wolverine waited.  
A moment later, a boy emerged from the forest behind his back. He was covered in sweat and he was bleeding from his left arm. When he saw Wolverine, whose uniform was quite torn and dirty, he didn't waste time and acted. _  
In the Arena, everyone is your enemy.  
_  
When Marvel thought about the life-changing moment later, in his afterlife, he still couldn't believe how fast did it happen. One second, he was sprinting towards the man, axe firmly in his right hand.  
The next second, the stranger spun around faster than it should be possible, swung his right arm towards Marvel's chest and a swift 'snikt' could be heard. In the mili-second before the pain in his chest exploded, Marvel realized there was something not human about the man's eyes.  
Not at all.  
And then he died.

Standing above the dead body, Wolverine sniffed the air once again. The attacker wasn't alone - there were thirteen-no, fourteen more scents in the air. The mutant swiftly moved into the forest, disappearing in the shadows, not leaving the slightest trace behind him.  
Of course, not counting the corpse, lying on the grass.  
As he ran through the wilderness, somewhere inside his head, deep-down, where the rest of his humani-_mutantity? _remained, a phrase popped up to the surface.  
_  
Let the hunt begin._

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**..a review would be nice... ;)**

**Hope you liked it! :D**

**~hervissa :)**


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